MARTIN O’Neill says the absence of banned winger Ashley Young will be as big a blow to Villa as Manchester United being without Ronaldo.

Young misses three games – against Doncaster, Portsmouth and Wigan – and O’Neill is looking for reinforcements.

The boss is believed to have his eye on Manchester City pair Daniel Sturridge and Michael Johnson, who could both find themselves down the pecking order following the arrivals of Craig Bellamy and Nigel de Jong.

Striker Sturridge, still only 19, is a former Villa youth who moved to Coventry at the age of 12 and will be out of contract this summer.

Midfielder Johnson has lost his way at City and although he has suffered with an abdominal injury, he is at the crossroads of his career and, aged 20, is thought to be ready to move on having not played in the top flight since August.

Young’s absence, in the meantime, is clearly a blow. “There are lots of things that we can improve in our team, absolutely,” said O’Neill.

“We have a number of really top-quality players playing in the side and, of course, when those players go out of the side – as Ashley Young will for three games – it will be very obvious we would miss him.

“It would be like Ronaldo and those people going out of the side at Manchester United. You will always miss your good players.”

O’Neill has warned his side they cannot take their foot off the gas and must continue to “fight for everything” as they head into their hectic programme without anything like the depth of squad the top four have at their disposal.

“Everything is a fight for us, it is a battle because that is the way it is,” he said.

“All I do know is that we are a fine footballing side, and we have still got a long way to go – even to be in that bracket on a regular basis with those big teams.

“Arsenal are a fine footballing side, Manchester United are terrific and are the champions of Europe as well, Chelsea are a terrific side – I don’t care what others are talking about – and Liverpool are a really fine side.

“They are fine because they have big, big squads to deal with. We have been going in with so many (18) players and we need to have a look at it.”